Adjustable drum mallets

ABSTRACT

The drum mallets disclosed are adjustable, by the percussion player, as to weight and/or balance and/or head characteristics, so as to vary the &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;feel&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; of the mallet, and thus also the tonal effect obtainable when playing upon kettle-drums, snare-drums, and other percussion instruments; and, typically, the mallet has frictionally slidable, removable and replaceable, external balancing mass means, positionable to serve as the striking head of the mallet, whereby the adjustment as to balance, overall weight, head characteristics and tone production may be readily obtained. In some forms, the said mass means regularly serves as a removable and replaceable striking head; while in other forms, the mass means comprises one or more thin elongated tubes having a frictionally-gripping fit on an elongated mallet body, so as to be manually slidable thereon but tight enough to avoid dislodgment under normal playing action; and such a tubular member may be slidable to the head-end of the mallet to serve as a striking head or it may be slidable to a position to serve as a hand grip; and one or more such tubular members may be placed in various positions along the length of the mallet. The mallet body may also have a tapered element at the head-end to assure retention of mass members especially of enlarged-head types; and the disclosure further includes such heads embodying a relatively hard inner portion and a relatively soft outer covering.

United States Patent Hinger 3,665,799 [45] May 30, 1972 .4] ADJUSTABLE DRUM MALLETS Fred D. Hlnger, 357 Hilltop Avenue, Leonia, NJ. 07605 [22] Filed: Nov.23, 1970 [21} Appl.No.: 92,157

[72] Inventor:

Related [1.8. Application Data [63] Continuation of Ser. No. 871,739, Sept. 11, 1969, abandoned, which is a continuation of Ser. No. 656,398, July 27, 1967.

Primary Examiner-Stephen .l. Tomsky Assistant Examiner-John F. Gonzales Attorney -Synnestvedt & Lechner 57] 7 ABSTRACT The drum mallets disclosed are adjustable, by the percussion player, as to weight and/or balance and/or head characteristics, so as to vary the feel of the mallet, and thus'also the tonal effect obtainable when playing upon kettle-drums, snare-drums, and other percussion instruments; and, typically, the mallet has frictionally slidable, removable and replaceable, external balancing mass means, positionable to serve as the striking head of the mallet, whereby the adjustment as to balance, overall weight, head characteristics and tone production may be readily obtained. In some forms, the said mass means regularly serves as a removable and replaceable striking head; while in other forms, the mass means comprises one -or more thin elongated tubes having a frictionally-gripping fit on an elongated mallet body, so as to be manually slidable thereon but tight enough to avoid dislodgment under normal playing action; and such a tubular member may be slidable to the head-end of the mallet to serve as a striking head or it may be slidable to a position to serve as a hand grip; and one or more such tubular members may be placed in various positions along the length of the mallet. The mallet body may also have a tapered element at the head-end to assure retention of mass members especially of enlarged-head types; and the disclosure further includes such heads embodying a relatively hard inner portion and a relatively soft outer covering.

15 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures ADJUSTABLE DRUM MALLETS This application is a continuation of Application 871,739,

filed September 11,1969 which was in turn a continuation of my Application 656,398, filed July 27, 1967. This invention relates to adjustable drum mallets, and more particularly to mallets which are adjustable as to weight and/or balance and/or head characteristics; by one or more of which adjustments it is possible to obtain variations as to the feel of the mallet and as to the tonal effect obtainable.

The term drum mallets, except where otherwise limited by the context, refers to mallets, also called sticks, as used by percussion players, whether for drums or for other percussion instruments, such as Xylophone, gongs, chimes and other. instruments.

In the playing of percussion instruments, especially in bands or orchestras, it is quitecustomary for the player, particularly when playing upon drumsand notably upon the timpani, to have readily at hand during performance, a collection of mallets of varioussizes and weights, and having different characteristics of balance, and with differing head portions. For example, some mallets may be relatively light in weight. Others may be heavier. Some may have a relatively hard end portion or a relatively hard striking head mounted on the end, while others may be soft. Their balance in some cases may be such that a greater proportion of the weight is located toward the head end; in others toward the handle end.

For a given weight and/or condition of balance, a mallet may have a large or a small striking head, or be made as a plain stick or tube rounded off at thehead end, but without an actual head thereon; and, where a head is applied, the heads may be made of substantially different materials, depending upon a variety of factors, such as the type of music being played, whether the playing is'i'ndoors or out of doors, and, in the case of drums, whether the drum head is of natural hide or of some synthetic material; also whether the desired tone is dark, bright, warm, hard, soft, etc.

For the expert player, performing before a discriminating audience, these various conditions and requirements often involve the presence, close at hand, of numerous pairs of ma]- lets, and it becomes almost a matter of juggling, to shift from one pair to another quickly, during the performance.

It is an object of the present invention'to obtain easy and rapidadjustm'ent of drum mallets; and,'more specifically, to obtain such adjustment as to balance, or as to overall weight, or as to head characteristics, or as to two or all of these, and hence as to tone production; and thus also to minimize the problems above-mentioned.

' How this object, with its attendant advantages, is attained by the present invention will be clear from the following description, taken together with the accompanying drawings, which disclose a preferred form of construction embodying theinvention, and also alternative forms.

FIG. 1 is an elevational view of a drum mallet embodying the present invention, a part of the handle portion being broken away to condense the illustration. FIG. 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a view, similar to FIG. 1, but of a modified embodiment. FIG. 4 is a fragmentary longitudinal section showing a third embodiment. FIG. 5 is a similar longitudinal section showing a fourth embodiment.

FIG. 1 illustrates a drum mallet having a hollow tubular metal body 5 and cushioned head .6, which latter may for example be of felt adhesively secured to the end of the body, or may be of other suitable materials, otherwise applied, for example as disclosed in my prior Pat. No. 3,217,581.

The body 5 itself may be of a variety of materials, but in the present instance it is a piece of aluminum tubing which at the I ends is swaged, rolled or turned down, as indicated at 7, to form a smooth curved end, for comfortable handling and to avoid possible damage to drum heads.

To secure adjustability of the weight and/or of the balance of the mallet, and hence of the feel and of the playing characteristics, this mallet is provided with one, at least, and, if

needed, a plurality of, readily removable and replaceable auxiliary masses; and, for the sake of simplicity, speed, ease and accuracy of such adjustments, these masses or weights are made accessible from the outside of the body or handle,

preferably by being disposed exteriorly thereof, and are preferably made readily slidable lengthwise therealong.

For the greatest ease and simplicity in carrying out the foregoing, at least that portion of the body along which the movement of the weights is to occur is made cylindrical, and the weights themselves are formed as collars or tubes, having an internal diameter approximating the outside diameter of the cylindrical part of the body and preferably having a frictionally-gripping slide fit thereon, so that they will not become unintentionally dislocated or dislodged in use.

in the present preferred arrangement, the body is cylindrical throughout its length, excepting of course for the. partially spherical ends.'

Desirably, one or more of the tubular weights are also utilized for purposes of providing a good hand grip for the player. To this end the body or handle is preferably provided with more than one tubular weight, and at least one of these is normally disposed toward the upper or hand-grip end of the ma]- let, although for balancing purposes it may be shifted toward and away from that end.

In order to render the mounting of the weights secure, they may be made of rubber, plastic, a synthetic material such as that sold under the trademark "Neoprene, or other suitable material having characteristics similar to those of the materials just mentioned, and the internal diameter of such tubular weights is made slightly less than the external diameter of the cylindrical body itself, so that the tube will be manually slidable therealong but will normally maintain any position on it to which it has been moved. In this regard, if the tubular member does not grip the body quite tightly enough, its grip may readily be adjusted by applying an adhesive plastic strip around the tubular weight. A quickly adjustable tubular mass is shown at 8 near the lower or head-end of the mallet, and around this is shown the plastic tightener 9, which can readily be applied, under various tensions, by using a piece of plastic having an adhesive on one face.

7 Near the upper end of the handle is the combined hand grip and adjustable weight 11, .which in this instance has been tightened by a couple of adhesive plastic bands 12.

The mallet length may vary considerably, depending upon the particularv instrument with which it is to be used, typical lengths being from about 14 inches to 18 inches. In this regard, FIG. 1 illustrates a mallet, to scale, adapted to playing upon the timpani, By way of illustration, but not limitation, the body of this mallet is of aluminum tubing of 5/8 inch 0D. and a wall thickness of about 0.035 inch and the length of this mallet is approximately l6 inches; part of it being broken away in the middle of the illustration in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a section through the metal body member 5 and the adjustable weight 8. This figure also shows the aperture '7' at the swaged-down end of the body.

Normally, if the total weight of the mallet is to be varied, the

thickness, length, material, or number of the tubular sleeves 8 and/or 11 will be varied to accomplish these purposes.

With or without such changes for altering the total weight, the balance, feel and playing characteristics are easily and quickly varied by sliding one or more of the tubular weights lengthwise along the handle. This is illustrated for example by the dotted line showing 8a in FIG. 1, representing a movement of the weight 8 from the full line position to said dotted line position which latter is closer to the head 6. This of course gives a more massive feel to the mallet and also produces a heavier and darker tone for a given stroke of the mallet. It is often desirable, for instance when playing the kettle-drums, which are tuned to higher and lower pitches, to use mallets of different mass characteristics in the two hands of the player. With the present invention, this is readily accomplished by using two identical mallets with their weights differently member is of course somewhat limited, because of the fact that the hand grip should not normally be moved far from the end of the stick. Thus (in FIG. 1) the sleeve-like weight 11 (with the bands 12) is shown in one position in full lines; whereas the dotted-line showing 11a and 12a indicates a second position, the sleeves here being almost at the extremity of the handle end of the mallet. Here it is especially well adapted to serve as a hand-grip.

As an alternative to adjusting the tightness of the rubber or other tubular weights on the handle by applying a tightening band outside of the tubular member, such bands may be applied around the body itself at a series of points as shown for example at 13, 13 in FIG. 1.

Any of the bands 9, 12 and 13 may also be applied in various colors, to signify various characteristics of different mallets; for example: overall weight, hardness, materials used in the head, etc. This color code, to indicate different characteristics of different mallets, aids the player in quickly selecting the mallets as he is playing.

, FIG. 3 illustrates an alternative form of mallet, for example one which is well adapted for playing on the snare drums. In this case the mallet has no head equivalent to the head 6 in FIG. 1. The drum is played with the rounded head-end 7a of the body itself. Indeed, either end may serve as the playing or headend, with this construction. Alternatively, the drum may be beaten by the sleeve member 8b, which may be done by moving it to the position indicated by the dotted lines 8c.

In this form, a series of identical sleeves 81:, for example three of them, are employed, and they may all be shifted toward one end or the other of the stick a, or located at various points therealong depending upon the condition of balance desired. It will also be observed that the body in this instance is of a larger diameter than the body in FIG. 1; which is by way of illustration of the adaptability of the invention.

In FIG. 4, the head itself is readily removable and replaceable. Here, for illustration but not by way of limitation, is shown a solid wood stick serving as the body 517. At the headend region this carries a tapered sleeve 14, e.g. of rubber, which is progressively thicker from its inner end 14a to its outer end 1412. This sleeve is fixed, preferably by an epoxy adhesive, to the body 511.

The playing head of this mallet comprises three elements: first, a cylindrical (or, if desired, a slightly tapered) fiber or phenolic tube '15, which may readily be slid over the handle end of the body and forced onto sleeve 14, the taper of which holds the head as against flying off the handle when playing; second, a more or less rounded bodyof material 16 such as masking tape wound onto the tube 15; and third, a softer covering body 17 which may conveniently be of fibrous material such as sold under the trademark Orlon", or of wool flannel, or of felt (such as used on piano hammers), sewn over or adhesively secured to the intermediate harder body 16.

The head assembly, l5, 16, 17, can be quickly slid onto and off of the tapered member 14 (via the handle end of the stick), and the mallet may be played with or without the head, and in the latter event the rubber sleeve 14 provides the impact surface. Also, an elastic tubular mass, such as 8 or 8b (already described) may be slid along the body 5b and forced onto the tapered member 14, to serve as a head of different playing characteristics. Alternatively, a larger head (such as that shown in FIG. 5, now to be described) may be quickly substituted for the head 15, 16, 17.

By substituting different heads, one can change the size, material, hardness and weight, also the balance of the mallet and the sound effect.

In FIG. 5, the mallet comprises a cylindrical handle or main body 50 which itself is flared or tapered to an increasing diameter, from the point 5d to the extreme end 5c. The head comprises elements 15a, 16a, 17a, like those already described with reference to the head structure 15, 16, 17 in FIG. 4; but in FIG. 5 the head is of larger size and mass. The

capabilities of the embodiment of FIG. ime also present with that of FIG. 5; while the sleeve element 14 may be omitted, in

view of the taper of the handle body itself.

By means of the present invention, any desired alteration of an elongated body with a head end and a handle end, said body being of uniform external'configuration throughout a major part of its length, and a balancing mass which comprises at least one mass member configured as a thin elongated tube mounted exteriorly of said body and having'a frictionally-gripping fit thereon adapted for ready manual sliding movement but of such tightness as to retain any normal adjusted position on said body as against dislodgment by the normal playing action of the mallet. I i

2. The mallet of claim 1 having a plurality of mass members of the character set forth.

3. The mallet of claim 1 with means for adjusting the fit of such mass member on the body.

4. The mallet of claim 1 wherein there is an enlarged head on the head end of the body, and the specified mass member is adapted to be slipped over the handle end of said body and adjusted toward and away from said head.

5. The mallet of claim 1 wherein the said mass member is of such length as to serve also as a hand-grip.

6. The mallet of claim 1 wherein the said mass member is of yielding material slidably disposable at the head end of said body and adapted to serve also as the striking head of the mallet.

7. A drum mallet comprising:

an elongated body with a head end and a handle end, and a striking head on said head end embodying a relatively hard tape-like winding and an outer relatively soft layer.

8. The mallet of claim 7 wherein said outer layer is of a cushion-like fibrous material.

9. The mallet of claim 7 wherein said outer layer is sewn over said winding.

10. The mallet of claim 7 wherein said outer layer is adhesively secured over said winding.

11. The mallet of claim 7 wherein a tapered element acts to retain said striking head on said body.

12. A drum mallet comprising:

an elongated body with a head end and a handle end, and a readily movable mass cooperating with said body for altering the playing characteristics of the mallet, wherein the mass comprises a playing head and the body is provided with a tapered end element cooperating with said playing head to hold it in place.

13. The mallet of claim 12 wherein said tapered end element is an integral part of the body.

14. A drum mallet comprising:

an elongated body with a head end and a handle end, and a readily movable mass cooperating with said body for altering the playing characteristics of the mallet, wherein the mass comprises a playing head incorporating a tube, a relatively hard material mounted on said tube, and a relatively soft covering. I

15. A drum mallet with a handle having frictionally slidable, removable and replaceable, external balancing mass means, positionable to serve as the striking head of the mallet, whereby adjustment of the mallet as to balance, overall weight, head characteristics and tone production may be readily obtained. 

1. A drum mallet comprising: an elongated body with a head end and a handle end, said body being of uniform external configuration throughout a major part of its length, and a balancing mass which comprises at least one mass member configured as a thin elongated tube mounted exteriorly of said body and having a frictionally-gripping fit thereon adapted for ready manual sliding movement but of such tightness as to retain any normal adjusted position on said body as against dislodgment by the normal playing action of the mallet.
 2. The mallet of claim 1 having a pluraliTy of mass members of the character set forth.
 3. The mallet of claim 1 with means for adjusting the fit of such mass member on the body.
 4. The mallet of claim 1 wherein there is an enlarged head on the head end of the body, and the specified mass member is adapted to be slipped over the handle end of said body and adjusted toward and away from said head.
 5. The mallet of claim 1 wherein the said mass member is of such length as to serve also as a hand-grip.
 6. The mallet of claim 1 wherein the said mass member is of yielding material slidably disposable at the head end of said body and adapted to serve also as the striking head of the mallet.
 7. A drum mallet comprising: an elongated body with a head end and a handle end, and a striking head on said head end embodying a relatively hard tape-like winding and an outer relatively soft layer.
 8. The mallet of claim 7 wherein said outer layer is of a cushion-like fibrous material.
 9. The mallet of claim 7 wherein said outer layer is sewn over said winding.
 10. The mallet of claim 7 wherein said outer layer is adhesively secured over said winding.
 11. The mallet of claim 7 wherein a tapered element acts to retain said striking head on said body.
 12. A drum mallet comprising: an elongated body with a head end and a handle end, and a readily movable mass cooperating with said body for altering the playing characteristics of the mallet, wherein the mass comprises a playing head and the body is provided with a tapered end element cooperating with said playing head to hold it in place.
 13. The mallet of claim 12 wherein said tapered end element is an integral part of the body.
 14. A drum mallet comprising: an elongated body with a head end and a handle end, and a readily movable mass cooperating with said body for altering the playing characteristics of the mallet, wherein the mass comprises a playing head incorporating a tube, a relatively hard material mounted on said tube, and a relatively soft covering.
 15. A drum mallet with a handle having frictionally slidable, removable and replaceable, external balancing mass means, positionable to serve as the striking head of the mallet, whereby adjustment of the mallet as to balance, overall weight, head characteristics and tone production may be readily obtained. 